I'm actually disappointed with myself now. Sitting down with a beer in one hand, and a nice evening at home, it's easy to be hard on myself following today's performance.
So what exactly did happen ? The day started well enough as we picked up Nick to go to Vincennes. It was cool at around 17°C but there weren't enough clouds in the sky to my liking. Having arrived, the registration was a little disorganised as they couldn't find Laurence's number and so she was handed a spare ... n° 1. This looked like a good omen ! We bumped into François-Xavier at the start and had a quick chat about race tactics. His plan was to stick to me from the start and to see how it went. Mine was to head off hard and to try and lose him.
A quick warm up with Nick while Laurence queued half an hour for the toilet (the joys of being a man!) and I'd already broken into a sweat. It was definitely warmer than I would have preferred. We lined up amongst around 890 others and we were off.
I set off quickly as the tracks were narrow and I wanted to be in a good position by the time we hit the tarmac at the end of the first stretch. It was a little rough as there was some long grass to be negotiated trying to overtake the other runners who had positioned themselves ahead of me at the start. The marker quickly came up for the first km and I glanced at my watch: 3:37 - a little quick but I was relieved as the going had been hard and this meant I could ease off slightly. Mostly road and tarmac up to the second kilometre but very slightly uphill - 7:29 and I was still on schedule. At he far end of the road, sharp right-hander and back onto the paths but a slight downhill now to 3km - 11:13. I could feel the pace but was still comfortable and I'd glimpsed François-Xavier just behind me.
Damn, I'd thought at the start that if I ran hard at the beginning, I'd drop him and that he wouldn't catch me until well after 6km when I always have this tendency to slow down. He pulled alongside at 4 km (15:03) and although still on schedule, I just couldn't keep up with him and he inched ahead as you can see on the video of us as we end the first loop after 5km and 18:56 (thanks Paul for being an excellent cameraman).
The second loop was worse and I started to tire badly. The slight uphills were a drag and the heat was having an impact. All the usual thoughts of giving up and walking went through my mind while I gritted my teeth and tried to push on. No avail, F-X was pulling away but slowly - around 50m now. 9km (completely wrong in reality as it was more like 9.2!) in 35:25 and I pushed hard again to finish reasonably while my breathing was tortuous. Crossed the line in 38:52, 12 places and 22 seconds behind F-X. Damn, damn, damn !
Nick finished in 39:48 and having spoken to him quickly about his race, I went back to cheer on Laurence for the finish. A bright green top and the number 1 appeared and I encouraged her for the sprint finish. She'd given everything already though and just missed out on the 50 minute barrier, finishing in 50:08.
No more 10 km races until the fall now - plenty of time to reflect on a new race strategy!
Some photos here:
4 comments:
Love the video footage!
Well done on another good time. I reckon you just need some more endurance in the legs as you've obviously got the speed for a quicker time based on you first few kms.
Video footage was directed and shot by Paul with our camera. Both boys were most interested in capturing some footage of the very (over?) enthusisatic supporter just in front of them. He kept clapping everybody and shouting "Well done" everytime somebody went past. A bit of a Joey really, but he kept them amused all of the race !
Thanks for the lift. Was reasonably please with the time but as I did the last km 35 seconds quicker than the average for the other 9, I don't think I could have been pushing hard enough. (Didn't feel like that though).
I'm pretty sur that the 9km mark was wrong and was nearer 9.1 - 9.2 than 9km. We all went exceptionally fast over the last kilometre: mine 3:27; Laurence 4:11; you 3:22 !! Only explanation is that it wasn't a kilometre.
As for the times, I think that we're all capable of going faster. I need to take a minute off my time and I'm sure you can do the same.
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